WotC Birthright may be opened up for DM's Guild

[TheSword]

Same here.

I do believe it would be more appreciated now then it was then however. Birthright has had a strong influence on many DMs I know, and yet none of us ever ran it. It plays on many tropes that are more popular now than they were in AD&D setting-happy TSR of the late 90's.

As stated before, this setting would be a perfect outlet for official...

• Mass combat rules
• Player domain/stronghold/guild management rules
• Extended downtime rules (like a whole season, or a full year)
• External power sources to fuel magic (almost à la M:tG)
• Regional magic
• A slow(er)-paced campaign construction
• An official setting with less available, yet powerful magic (I don't dare say "low magic" anymore)
• "Race/subrace" variants as bloodlines or regional traits (already explored with dragonmarks in Eberron; RftlW)

It also had 25 products and 5 novels, plus a computer game. So I think it made a bigger impact than we’re giving it credit for.

 

[TheSword]

Also other settings like Planescape had a similar 4 year run of published material under AD&D and then stopped with 3e.

 

[Bagpuss]

I really enjoyed the setting, that product also gives you an idea of what TSR's output was like, compared to WotC. All those products over two years and just for one setting, they were publishing for a load of other settings at the same time.

Admittedly most of those products were pretty slim realm sourcebooks, but others were pretty detailed and had a much higher page count.

It's no wonder it ended up in trouble.

 

[Alzrius]

It also had 25 products and 5 novels, plus a computer game.

At the risk of nitpicking, it actually had six novels, but the last one was moved to a free-for-download release when the line was cancelled.

For that matter, the Forgotten Realms novel The Shadow Stone was originally a Birthright novel that was repurposed to FR, presumably because the line was ending when it was ready to go.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I keep thinking about running a Birthright campaign one of these days. Never touched it back in the day, but I've been idly collecting stuff for it since. Those slim domain books are great resources. They're relatively rules-light and can be fit into most settings quite easily. At least two of them ended up in my 3e homebrew world.

 

[Stormonu]

Birthright had a lot of interesting things going on in it, what always turned me off was the Gaelic/Celtic names and terms.

I would like to see them do the board game they put together a long time ago, using the conspectus for the map. Throw in some plastic figures and a sideboard for mass combats (similar to how Axis & Allies handles combat), I'd bet it would sell pretty well these days.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah. A Birthright campaign setting book would be a great way for WotC to introduce both mass combat rules (which they haven't revisited since that early UA, right?) and rules for building and running a kingdom.

There was the early UA, but they did another go for the XGtE tests that didn't pass muster.

However, there is also the vehicle rules used in GoS, AI, and Descent into Avernus that Mearls let slip were actually part of a broader mass combat system under development.

 

[TheSword]

Birthright had a lot of interesting things going on in it, what always turned me off was the Gaelic/Celtic names and terms.

I would like to see them do the board game they put together a long time ago, using the conspectus for the map. Throw in some plastic figures and a sideboard for mass combats (similar to how Axis & Allies handles combat), I'd bet it would sell pretty well these days.

My sister in law was Welsh so I put the work in. It was definitely a throwback to a more faerie-tale depiction of elves and thus the things they named. Again very like the Witcher, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t influenced though it followed hot on the heels of the first anthology.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Saw this. Don't see much purpose if it's not for opening up Birthright for DM's Guild

That Birthright conspectus was a free handout to drum up excitement before the release of the box set. I believe I saw them handed out in my FLGS, I might even have mine around somewhere.

I doubt this is a sign the setting is opening up.

 

[Parmandur]

I think it's a sign they want to digitize some older edition ephemera and make them available.